Comcast settles P2P throttling class-action for $16 million

Comcast got itself in hot water when it decided to use reset packets to slow …

Comcast has agreed to settle a class-action lawsuit over the throttling of P2P connections that had users up in arms in late 2007 and 2008. The company still stands behind its controversial methods for "managing" network traffic, but claims that it wants to "avoid a potentially lengthy and distracting legal dispute that would serve no useful purpose."

It was more than two years ago when Comcast subscribers began finding evidence that the broadband provider was blocking packets—particularly those being sent through BitTorrent. When the complaints mounted, the Associated Press went ahead with its own investigation and came to the same conclusion: downloads through BitTorrent were either being blocked altogether or being slowed down significantly.

At that time, Comcast vehemently denied that it had anything to do with these mysterious slowdowns. This was despite the fact that numerous customers reported that their Comcast connections were sending reset packets out to the rest of the Internet—the AP discovered that nearly half of the reset packets being received by cable competitor Time Warner were coming from Comcast. Eventually, Comcast acknowledged that it had engaged in "traffic management" techniques in order to keep its network speedy, which eventually resulted in an FCC investigation and a subsequent abandoning of its P2P-hatin' ways in favor of a more neutral congestion management system.

That, of course, failed to stop several class-action lawsuits from moving forward. Angry customers argued that Comcast had violated its own Terms of Service as well as various consumer protection laws by representing itself as offering the fastest Internet connection—P2P or not. Comcast has now agreed to settle at least one of those, which was filed in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. As part of the proposed settlement, Comcast wants to pay up to $16 million (minus attorney's fees) to class members who believe they were affected by the company's practices.

Don't get too excited over that big number, though. The proposed settlement page (which still awaits final approval from a judge) says that those who submit valid claim forms will receive "a share" of the total... that won't go over $16.